Talking Heart Rate Monitor – promises not to scare you with problems

Suddenly the world is awash with heart rate monitors, as if we needed any more tools to scare us witless. Most of them vary around a single idea, that the easiest way to take a pulse is to shine a light onto a fingertip vein and read the results. However, some people have clearly decided that they can make the whole process even more exotic.

Take this Talking Heart Rate Monitor for instance. Stick it on your finger tip and not only will it display your heart rate in around 7 seconds, but it also features an oximeter which gives a reading on all sorts of interesting medical stuff that we don’t understand. And to top it all off, the thing will actually give you the readings via a cool, calm female voice which is guaranteed not to scare you to death, even if it says you have no pulse at all. Which will presumably be too late anyway.

The device runs off 2 AAA batteries, comes with a case and lanyard and retails at $99.95. Which is thankfully much lower than a heart stoppingly expensive $100.

Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don’t we all?